CWU to invest in Connolly

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) is to invest €250,000 in the Connolly movie following a meeting of the union’s National Executive in December which endorsed a proposal put to it by the union’s General Secretary, Steve Fitzpatrick.

The decision is warmly welcomed by Rascal Films producer, Frank Allen, who always believed that community is as powerful as any multi-national, if properly organised, and that the trade union movement is the ideal vehicle for that. “I am delighted that another Irish trade union has joined with SIPTU in recognising the value of this film to the labour movement. But I have to say that having met with the officers and executive of the CWU in early 2006 I felt that they would not be found wanting. It was obvious to me that the CWU is a union that lives by the abiding principles that underpin the labour movement; that knows and values its own roots in history; but also, that it is a union that understands that the future has yet to be won, and that popular culture such as film is an important tool to be used to build awareness and support among workers for the trade union movement.”

Rascal’s Tom Stokes is pleased that the CWU has joined with SIPTU in making a significant investment in the Connolly film. “When SIPTU’s General Secretary, Joe O’Flynn, announced that union’s commitment in May 2006 it was a bold and imaginative move. What the CWU leadership has done is to vindicate that decision and to stand shoulder to shoulder with their comrades in SIPTU in making this ethical, pragmatic and visionary investment. But what the CWU has done as well is to set a benchmark for union investment in the film. That union has in the region of 20,000 members, and the investment they have pledged is very significant in that light. I applaud them for it.”

Connolly director Adrian Dunbar played an important role in discussions with the union leadership. “What really impressed me was the level of engagement with what this film is really about and what it can do, and that the union’s leadership understands the power that cinema has to entertain and inform simultaneously. But they also know that you need an audience and a return on investment and we had to provide answers in the same way as we would with any hard-nosed private investor. I am delighted at their decision to invest in Connolly and thank the union leadership and members for their practical and moral support.”